Meryl Streep is the most amazing actress. Ever. I know that’s a bold statement, I’ll try to earn some goodwill by noting that Audrey Hepburn is my pick for second best. I’ve never hidden the fact that Streep gives me major lady-wood and I’d buy a ticket to watch her read the phone book. One of my favorite flicks to watch her shine in is ‘Mama Mia‘. I have a major weak spot for musicals and the golden-haired goddess singing and dancing was a natural favorite, so, of course, I have been incredibly excited for ‘Ricki and the Flash‘ since I heard it was announced.

The first trailer and poster for the film ‘The Post‘ is standing straight up. It’s a big deal, because it has Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in the lead roles with Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair. That’s a powerhouse right there. The film will release on December 22nd, just in time for the holidays, but really, they want to get it in for Oscar consideration. The film releases everywhere next year on January 12. In addition to Hanks and Streep, the film stars Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, and Zach Woods.

It looks like ‘Mama Mia!‘ is getting the sequel treatment with ‘Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again‘ with everyone returning to their roles. It doesn’t look like Meryl Streep with be the main star here this time, but her and Cher will be seen in the movie. The first film was fun enough and the ABBA music still resonates, but I wonder what music group will be picked this time around. I just hope this isn’t a hasty rehash of the first film.

When you have names like Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep coming together for a movie, you expect something out of this world. That’s not really the case with this talented trio in their new film called ‘The Post‘. Don’t get me wrong, ‘The Post‘ is a good film, but like Spielberg’s recent movies in ‘Lincoln‘ and ‘War Horse‘, there is something magical missing. While the performances are all very good and the movie looks visually pleasing at all times, the script and delivery is a bit on the nose with emotion or lack thereof. Still, this is an important movie to watch in our current political climate as I imagine the true story it was based on back in the early 1970s, which paved the way and kept our “freedom of press” in tact.

The 89th Oscars were announced today. These are supposed to be the Best Achievements in Filmmaking on all levels. However, year after year, The Academy and “their infinite wisdom” choose to pick dull films that should never be nominated. In fact, I bet you could go through most of the Winners of each year and realize you only watched that film or performance once and never thought about it again. At least The Academy had a good bit of diversity this year, but other than that – these Oscar nominations are boring, dull, and made me go to sleep just watching the equally not-fun announcement telecast.

I’ve waited all year and finally it’s time!!! Not time for Christmas, you sillies, it’s AWARDS season!!! It’s time to see who has been chosen to attend the Golden Globes ball, who’s going to be crowned King and Queen and then there are some of us just hoping we’ll be asked to dance. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association will issue ballots that will be counted and announced Sunday, January 8, 2017 in a televised event hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

Another year has come and gone and brought with it about a billion movies, some were total crap and a waste of time, but others…oh they were worth every bit of time I spent. Pre-movie hype, post-movie discussion, and the random hours I spent thinking about it in the shower or sitting at a stop-light. Having said that, this is my list of movies that 2015 blessed us with, and maybe a few the year cursed us with.

We’ve all come to know that Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actresses in the world. With each role she plays, she fully immerses herself into her character, which usually leads to Oscar nominations and wins. There almost isn’t a year that goes by where Streep isn’t nominated for something, and truth be told, she usually deserves it. Over the years, we’ve seen Streep play many roles, most of which are dramatic performances with a few comedic and musical roles thrown in for good measure. Hell, she even played a witch in ‘Into the Woods‘, but we’ve never seen Streep like this before in Jonathan Demme’s ‘Ricki and the Flash‘.

Disney has done it again, they’ve taken a popular musical and put it on screen. There are all kinds of takes on how well the film did, the casting choices and even the songs (Hello? Didn’t anyone see the original show before?), not to mention the flack over the prolific double entendres uttered by Johnny Depp’s Big Bad Wolf to Lilla Crawford’s Red Riding Hood, once again, did you NOT see the original people? I loved it, one of the high points is Meryl Streep as the witch. Meryl is flawless regardless her role. Now the Blu-ray is coming on March 24, 2015!!!

Look, I’m not saying that making a good Fantasy movie is easy, but we live in a post-Lord of the Rings world here. We live in a world where Game of Thrones is on the highest ranking TV shows and is watched by all sorts of demographics. All I’m trying to say is, in this day and age, there’s just no excuse for “Seventh Son.”

Into the Woods had a great deal of expectations to live up to. A beloved musical featuring a well-known cast and director, this fairytale musical could easily have been a disappointment. However, with some musical high notes and great performances, the movie was a fun watch, in spite some editing and storyline issues.

It’s been a big year for the entertainment world. Netflix’s initial push to bring movie-theater worthy films straight to streaming customers and bypassing the big screen altogether set off a chain of deals that will take those fresh releases and push them directly into homes allowing us to bypass a $15.00 soda, but denying us the $20.00 popcorn you can only get at the theater.Then came the deluge of series and movies being made for exclusive run with everyone from Netflix, Amazon to Crackle and everything in between. Top that off with the huge breach of privacy Sony experienced. New releases were flooded onto P2P sharing sites and private emails from the film company’s big wigs that show us how the infrastructure of Sony really works, not to mention what those involved really think of some of their superstars.

It is time for the 2014 Golden Globe nominations. The 72nd Golden Globes will be held on Sunday, Jan. 11 and broadcast live at 5 PM PST, 8 PM EST on NBC. It looks like there were quite a few films that were overlooked. What do you think?

Here we are with yet another Young Adult franchise that is based off a series of books. This time around, we have Phillip Noyce’s adaptation of Lois Lowry’s 1993 big selling book ‘The Giver‘. I can’t believe it’s been more than twenty years since that book came out. If you are unfamiliar with the story, don’t feel left out, for you have probably seen or heard this story a few times before. ‘The Giver‘ takes place in a man-mad Utopia of sorts where people are void of human emotion by choice and force, thus no violence or wars could happen again.

The entertainment world goes through fads, just like fashion. One day we’re inundated with talking sea animals from every animated company, the next day it’s all about bugs. Right now, culinary genius is taking center stage.

The Weinstein Company began production today on ‘Adam Jones‘. This pic puts Bradley Cooper (‘Silver Linings Playbook‘) and Sienna Miller (‘GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra‘) together and adds a little spice making Cooper a bad-boy Michelin chef who has to change his ways. The project was originally called ‘The Chef‘ until ‘Chef‘, Jon Favreau’s tale of a chef who loses his restaurant and hits to the road in a food truck piecing his life, and his family, back together along the way. Obviously this can’t work in the film industry an agreement was made and a change of title followed.

We just got word that starting in the upcoming Season 5 of Showtime’s ridiculously popular series ‘Shameless‘ there is going to be a guest star featured. The ever-so sexy DermotMulroney will play a former bad-boy and recovering addict, Sean Pierce, Fiona’s (Emmy Rossum) new manager at Patsy’s Pies. Most recently he featured with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts award-winning ‘August: Osage County‘. Currently, Mulroney is in production on his first horror-genre movie ‘Insidious 3: Into The Further‘.

Awesome news! The tag-team duo that brought us ‘Bridesmaids‘ is back! Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo are taking celluloid for another spin. ‘Bridesmaids‘ became a slightly unexpected hit on a global scale for being a female-driven comedy. The upcoming flick is going to team Wiig and Mumolo as writers again, but they will also produce, star and Wiig is going to try her hand at directing the project which is going to be a first effort for the comedian. TriStar Productions is backing the production and they have described the film as the story of “best friends who find themselves in over their heads and out of their depths, which were, perhaps, not too deep to begin with.” No release date has been set.

There are a few names in Hollywood that can cherry-pick working conditions. Meryl Streep is among the very top of that list. Beginning her career in 1975 with a total of 74 projects in her resume, she has played every kind of character you can imagine. Her performances are moving, funny, realistic or greatly fantastical. No matter what film she’s in, she’s the top of my list of favorite actresses. I’m in high anticipation of what will surely be, another excellent musical performance in the film version of ‘Into The Woods‘.

It’s that time of year again when the stars and filmmakers all get together and honor the best of filmmaking over the year. Now the nominees are in, which this year was especially difficult to choose, as there was tons of great performances and films. Please let us know what you think of the nominees. Who got snubbed and who are you excited for? The Oscars will air live on March 2nd. Chris Hemsworth is out to announce the nominees as this Oscar ceremony has a superhero theme.

I know I’m a bit late with this news, but this past Sunday, all of the stars and filmmakers gathered for a night of jokes, drinks, food, and of course – awards. The Golden Globe winners were announced Sunday live on television with hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett,’Breaking Bad’, and ’12 Years A Slave’ were some of the winners. Below is the list of every winner for your enjoyment.

Here are the nominees for the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. Wow, there were a lot of snubs here. And how did ‘Rush‘ make the list for Best Picture? No way! And what about ‘The Way Way Back‘, ‘Mud‘, or ‘Short Term 12‘ not being nominated? For shame. Let me know what you think of this nominee list?

We all knew with the success of Sylvester Stallone’s ‘The Expendables‘ films, that there was eventually going to be a female version. It was only a matter of time. We’ve even talked about it on this site before. Well, we aren’t too far off from some big news regarding this project. Millennium Films chief Avi Lerner, who has released the past ‘Expendable‘ films, is making ‘The ExpendaBelles‘, which again is virtually the same film as Stallone’s, but with females.

If Hollywood teaches us anything lately it’s that evil sells. Think of Disney, alone. You will be hard pressed to find any of their cash cow cartoons without an utterly evil antagonist. Which I love. It seems like you take the scary, evil guy in any horror movie and stack them against Dr. Facilier from ‘Princess and the Frog‘, or Maleficent from ‘Sleeping Beauty‘, and my favorite, although he’s far less scary – Captain Hook from ‘Peter Pan‘. I repeat. Evil sells. Every major motion picture studio and every 3rd grader with dreams of being a film maker know this, too.

Destin Daniel Cretton’s film ‘Short Term 12‘ is in my Top 5 films of the year. This candid look at life in a big group foster home for trouble kids is natural, endearing, and brutal all at the same time. I was completely moved and fell in love with each character in its 96 minute run-time, and didn’t want to leave them when the credits started to roll. This film is more of an ensemble drama with Brie Larson and John Gallagher Jr. taking the more meaty roles. This captivating film will pull at the heart strings, but won’t leave you depressed like so many of these similar films have done before. I cannot wait to see this again and again.

Move over Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett has earned the Best Actress throne with this one. Woody Allen is one of the most prolific filmmakers in the last 100 years and despite his age, he continues to push out an original film each and every year. This latest one called ‘Blue Jasmine‘ fairs better than some of his recent efforts and leaves a longer lasting impression than most of his films. With one hell of cast that is comprised of several comedians, and Allen’s beautiful eye that captures the true essence of a city and harsh identity of his characters, this little film might be his best at the box office yet.

The Golden Globes were last night and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler killed it. They were amazing. Even former president Bill Clinton showed up to talk about Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln‘. Even though I really liked the film ‘Argo‘, I was shocked when it won best film and director for Ben Affleck. I was happy to see ‘Django Unchained‘ win for best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz and screenplay for Tarantino. If this is any pre-cursor to the Oscars, I’d be completely let down if ‘Argo‘ takes it all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great film, but not the best film of the year. I expect it to and want it to win the best adapted screenplay. Just my opinion. Below are the full results from last night’s show.

The nominations came in this morning and needless to say, I went into a fit of rage. I mean I was so mad, I almost wrote a letter. After going through the list of nominees, while some of the noms were well deserved, many were not, especially in the FILM categories. There needs to be a serious uprooting process at the Golden Globes where everyone involved in voting needs to be replaced by others who know what they’re doing.

Marriage takes work. Jobs, kids, houses, and ESPN have a way of creeping into happy relationships, replacing excitement and fun with crippling boredom. People get in ruts, they stop paying attention to their partners’ needs, and their foundation begins to crack. We’ve been told this story many times before, and while no new ground is broken, Hope Springs is a cute movie to which almost everyone in the audience can relate.

I was worried about Men in Black III. Almost every minute of Men and Black II made me wish I’d snuck in a beer or six, and I don’t think I could take more disappointment from Will Smith. I still haven’t fully forgiven him for Hancock.The third installment turned out to be about 1000% better than the second effort, chock full of witty one-liners, truly disgusting alien encounters, and a few good men who look damn fine in black suits and skinny ties.

Woody Allen’s ‘Manhattan’ is one hell of a fine movie, no matter what Woody Allen says. The video and audio make this the best the film has ever looked since the theatres. This film has some of the most iconic shots in any Woody Allen film and for that fact , any film made. The whole film is just one beautiful shot after another. Frame worthy. While there are no extras besides a theatrical trailer, this is still one bluray worthy of owning.

Well it’s here. This will be the page to keep it on for your Oscar coverage. We will be joined by Justin Cline, Aggressive Comix, and much much more. We will be giving out prizes for trivia, and have other contests. In the comment section below, be sure to keep the comments coming and tell us your Oscar picks. When tweeting, facebooking, or commenting be sure to use our hashtag #bsoscars.

It’s Oscar day, and we here at Boomstick are gearing up for our live video commentary for later tonight. We will be broadcasting live starting with the pre show and on through the entire night. We will have trivia for prizes as well. So be sure to keep it here and tune in. Now, below are my Oscar picks in the winners that I think will win as well as the ones that I hope to win. They are different, of course. Be sure to let us know what your picks are in the comment section and the one with the most right ballot might get a special prize. And be sure when you comment and tweet tonight to use the hashtag #bsoscars.

The 84th annual Academy Award nominations are in. There are a couple of surprises that I was very happy to see on here and tons of disappointment. It looks like the Academy went with 9 Best Picture noms this year rather than 10. They also only went with 3 noms for make up which I can think of others, and only two for original song. Was this a time issue, so that the event would be over on time for once rather than have all 5 songs being sung? I don’t like it, but that’s how it is this year. Below you will see each category with my thoughts. Enjoy.

Universal is hard at work on the release of ‘The Deer Hunter’ on bluray. It is expected to hit shelves March 6th and will have HD video and audio as well as some extras. Director Michael Cimino’s drama stars Robert De Niro, John Savage, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken and won Academy Awards for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken), Best Director, and Best Picture. Can’t wait to see this in HD.